


Alive

by Naomida



Series: Fire Meet Gasoline [10]
Category: World of Warcraft
Genre: F/M, Fluff and Angst, Gen, No Idea, The Broken Shore sucks, comment on dit l'au delà en anglais
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-07-29
Updated: 2018-07-29
Packaged: 2019-06-18 03:55:49
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,223
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15477123
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Naomida/pseuds/Naomida
Summary: “After all these years, all the things we saw and fought and lost, we’re here. Even though you died two days ago, even though I jumped off a ship, determined to sacrifice myself for the Alliance, even though we shouldn’t be here. We are. We’re here, and we made it.”





	Alive

“Do you have it?” asked Khadgar, his voice resonating into the large room.

Nodding, Lidya handed him the small object she had been keeping on herself since she had first gotten it back in the Nighthold. She had been shocked by the fact that it fitted into the palm of her hand – that something so small could be so powerful.

Khadgar gave her a solemn nod as he grabbed it and walked to the other pillars of creation.

Ilana had refused to come, saying something about getting Loramus out of Mardum and in to Azeroth for the first time since being back.

Lidya was happy for her, truly and sincerely, but she couldn’t help but wish her best friend was here with her when Khadgar put the Eye of Aman’thul in its base and energy pulsed all through the room, giving her shivers.

She was suppose to meet the Highlord and Huntmaster in Delivrance Point as soon as she was finished here, and it would be her first time back since she had learned about her sister’s fate.

She blinked, trying to ignore the empty space in her chest, right where Léria used to be, and focused back on Khadgar when he walked to her.

“How are you holding on?” he asked, voice soft as he gently touched her arm.

For a second, she was taken back to their time in Draenor, to Khadgar holding her as she completely lost it in the middle of the Tanaan Jungle and started hyperventilating between sobs. He had never asked why, never commented, just gave her all his support and friendship, and she’d never forget it.

“Better than expected, I guess,” she replied, meeting his uncertain eyes as he wet his lips.

“Listen, I’m so sorry, that day I couldn’t get myself to tell you, and I know this is unacceptable but–”

“It’s fine,” she cut him, putting her hand on his shoulder too. “I get it. I wouldn’t have been able to tell you either, had our places been swapped.”

He gave her a small, fragile smile, the circles under his eyes dark and hollowed, hair in even more of a mess than usual, and Lidya didn’t hesitate to take him in her arms and hold him as close and tight as possible.

The war was taking its toll on everyone, but while Lidya had Ilana, Varian and Ravandwyr to let out some steam, she knew Khadgar didn’t have the same luxury – didn’t let himself have it, so she was taking matter into her own hands and not giving him a choice.

“Thank you,” he murmured against her shoulder, curling up against her almost like a child would, and Lidya closed her eyes and started running a hand through his hair.

Sometimes, it was hard to remember that the archmage wasn’t that much older than her and that both of them had been put into impossible situations that they hadn’t wanted to be in.

“You can always come to me if you need a shoulder or a pair of ears, you know that,” she whispered.

He nodded and held her just a little bit tighter.

  


  


***

  


  


Lidya felt a little silly to have ever doubted her abilities as a frost mage. The residues of her blizzard were creaking under her boots and her frost orb was slicing through enemy line better than anything she had ever tried before, and she smiled as she raised a hand and the demon closest to her fell down dead after receiving a flurry of snow in the head. Maybe Varian’s coaching had helped, and she knew _for a fact_ that Archmage Draerin’s training was to thank for that – he had met her and Varian just as they were finishing to fight nagas off the coast of Suramar and had taken things into his own hands by immediately criticizing her form – but for the first time in a _really_ long time, she felt completely like herself. She smiled, casting another blizzard and freezing the closest demons so she could put some distance between them.

A scream resonated to her right but she didn’t pay any attention to it, used to Ilana terrorizing even the biggest and meanest demons the Legion had to offer.

The Archdruid and the Battlelord were somewhere into the fray too. They were supposed to give time to the Huntmaster – a troll who barely spoke orcish but had given everyone a big wave and a smile when the Battlelord had introduced him – who was supposed to grab something important or kill someone as important – Lidya hadn’t really paid attention. She had mostly tried to breath deeply and not throw up when thinking that the last time she had been here, her sister had been laying dead on the ground.

Things had been going well for now, but she knew from experience that they would soon be overwhelmed. Each demon they killed was replaced by two others while the four of them grew tired – and separated, she realized with dread when she tried looking for the moonlight emitted by Cary, the Archdruid, and couldn’t find it.

Swearing, Lidya pulled up another blizzard, a little thicker than the previous ones so the demons wouldn’t see her anymore before she was casting her invisibility spell and disappearing for good.

She started running as soon as darkness enclosed her, knowing that she only had a limited amount of time to either find one of her allies or get back to where she had started her search because there was no way she would last if she reappeared in the middle of the enemies.

She started pushing demons away and running faster the moment she set her eyes on Ilana, who looked to be in a tight spot with two demons pining her wrists to the ground while a third one was raising its axe to finish her.

Lidya impaled the first demon with an icelance without even thinking, raising her ice barrier at the same time just as an axe was making contact with it. She grunted and fell to her knees but stayed focused on Ilana, taking out two other demons approaching her.

Ilana yelled something at that and pulverized one of the demons holding her down with an eyebeam, which had Lidya smile, feeling better now that the demon hunter wasn’t in such a hard spot, before she was turning to the demon attacking _her_ – and who, to Lidya’s absolute horror, took care of her barrier with only one more sweep of its axe, sending her to fall back on her ass.

“Oh no you won’t,” she gritted when it sneered and licked its lips, already raising its weapon again.

If anyone asked why she didn’t raise her barrier again, she’d admit that it was from still not being used to being a frost mage again and having to just bring her temperature back down and have a brand new barrier around her. She’d also admit that in this moment, she panicked, because this demon was very big, Ilana was too far away to be of any help, and Lidya still wasn’t certain she could take on an enemy without the reassurance that someone else was with her in case anything bad happened.

So, instead of putting her barrier up again in a snap of cold to save her own life, Lidya tried to shimmer away one second too late – taking the axe in the junction of her shoulder and neck instead of the head.

She fell on her back, head rolling to the right just so she had time to see Ilana, her back to her, fighting demons. Lidya opened her mouth, wanting to call her name, ragged breath coming out in pants instead of words, and she just managed to raise her hand and summon a blizzard. She blinked at it, teary eyed all of the sudden, and moved her legs, managing to crawl with a grunt just so the demon wasn’t as close to her as it had been a second before.

 _I need more time_ , she thought, tears running down her cheeks as the demon took a step so it was standing directly over her, at the exact right angle for Lidya to put an icelance through its chest and kill it swiftly.

The demon fell next to her feet, but she was still looking at Ilana, who still had her back to her.

Lidya opened her mouth again, this time a strange hybrid between a sob and a moan passing through her lips instead of the demon hunter’s name, and she closed her eyes, knowing that the growing puddle of blood she was laying in was already too big for her to have any chance of surviving.

_I need more time._

  


  


***

  


  


Strong arms that she knew well were holding her in a way that hadn’t happened in _years_ and Lidya kept her eyes closed to bask in it for a moment.

She could hear Léria humming in the distance, like she usually did when baking their father’s apple pie, and for a second she couldn’t believe that at the end of everything, the Light would really accept her.

“There you are,” said a voice against her ear, Balaan’s, and she almost shivered. “I told you the Light would be with us,” he added in Draenei.

“I wish I’d have more time,” she replied, which had the arms around her squeeze tighter. “There’s so much that I still need to do.”

She was expecting an answer but only got a blinding flash of light instead and the most terrible of pain thunder through her body.

  


  


***

  


  


Lidya groaned in pain, almost passing out just as she was coming to, and she looked up to discover a disheveled and slightly hysteric looking Ilana, holding onto the handle of the axe still lodged into her shoulder – but not as deep as it was, somehow.

“You were dead a second ago!” screamed the Illidari, fingers tightening around her grip on the axe and making Lidya moan in pain.

Her thoughts were all over the place and she felt like the ground under her was violently tilting from side to side, but she was pretty sure she knew what had happened.

And if she wasn’t, the fact that she could see her collarbone _and_ one of rib from when she was was enough to tell her what she needed to know.

“Eye of Aman’thul,” she murmured between two pants, barely audible but enough apparently for Ilana who closed her eyes and sighed. “Please, please just...” she wet her lips and blinked, only just realizing that she was still crying, “please don’t touch that axe. You’ll kill me again and for good.”

“I can’t move you with that in your shoulder and the Battlelord won’t be able to hold the demons off much longer.”

“Your sister?”

“Can’t find her. You think you’ll be okay if I pull you by the legs?”

Lidya tried to shake her head and almost passed out.

“Try teleporting then.”

She did, closing her eyes so she could focus despite the pain and heavy blood loss, and only managed to shimmer on the spot and give herself the worst nausea ever. She felt sick and weak in a way she hadn’t ever experienced before, even against her most terrible foes, and that more than anything else terrorized her.

“Alright,” muttered Ilana, getting up and putting her blood covered hands on her hips, “you’re certainly not dying today and we need to move _now_.”

Lidya knew that her idea was stupid before even attempting it, but it wasn’t like she had a choice, so she gritted her teeth, held her left hand out, and let Ilana pull her up on her feet. She swayed badly, passing out for a second, Ilana barely able to hold her up, blood pouring everywhere, but after the first step that took everything Lidya never knew she had, she managed to get into a trance like state that enabled her to forget about everything that wasn’t putting one feet in front of the other.

“We’re never gonna make it,” gritted the Battlelord in accented Common when he joined them, what felt like thirty minutes later but could have been seconds.

“We don’t have a choice,” replied Ilana, and that was the end of the discussion.

  


  


***

  


  


People gasped and screamed when they arrived at Delivrance Point.

The first thing Lidya did was collapse, but Ilana was thankfully still holding on to her for dear life, so the worst was avoided and she was gently laid down on her back by Ilana and the Battlelord, who was exceptionally gentle for a big orc.

There was a lot of noise, and Lidya was way too out of it to understand what was happening, but she could feel Ilana’s hand in hers, holding on like it was the only thing keeping her alive – and maybe it was.

Lidya was pretty sure she would be dead if it wasn’t for the Illidari, and she refused to let go when the healers or someone else tried to make her.

There was a flash and for a second, she was scared that she was dead again, but Ilana squeezed her fingers and suddenly she realized that she was in a room on a bed and not on the ground outside anymore.

“I need to get the King,” murmured Ilana into her ear, and Lidya blinked, unable to turn her head with the pain in her neck, “I’ll come back as soon as possible, I promise.”

“Don’t leave me alone, please,” Lidya tried to say, but she just managed a small grunt, and Ilana’s hand slid out of hers without her being able to stop it from happening.

“Okay, everyone get ready!” screamed someone before she could protest her best friend’s sudden disappearance, and the axe was violently taken out of its spot in her shoulder and neck, and she passed out from the pain before being able to understand what was happening.

  


  


***

  


  


“You’ll let me in or I swear on everything that _you_ hold dear...” was the sentence Lidya came to.

There were still three healers around her, and they obviously hadn’t finished since she still could barely breathe, but she knew that voice and whoever was outside, trying to keep Varian from walking in would regret it – she’d beat Varian at making sure of it.

“Let him in,” she ordered, wishing her voice was more than a murmur, “now.”

The healers exchanged glances but didn’t say anything, one of them just went to open the door before getting back to their place near her shoulder.

Lidya watched as Varian, hair windswept and worry etched into every single one of his cells, marched into the room, set his eyes on her and had to put a hand on the wall and close said eyes for a second so he stayed upright.

“What happened?” he asked, softly, eyes going to something on the floor Lidya couldn’t see – but it had to be the bloody axe, considering Varian face and how pale he suddenly looked. “What...”

He swayed to her instead of finishing his sentence, falling to his knees next to her bed and grabbing her left hand between his, bringing her hand up so he could kiss her knuckles.

“I thought we talked about it,” he said, apparently unconcerned by the healers, “I ordered you to stay alive.”

“I am,” she replied, the sound of her voice making him frown harder than he already was. “I should be, once they’re finished.”

Varian spared one glance at the healers, who were making sure they weren’t looking at him, before his eyes were on her again.

“Just so we’re clear,” he said, kissing her hand again, “this is the last time a frantic demon hunter comes to me to announce that you’re dying, are we clear?”

“I can’t make any promises.”

He snorted, but they were tears in his eyes, ready to roll down his cheeks, and Lidya didn’t say anything when he let go of her hand to hide his face against her left hip. She buried her fingers in his hair, closed her eyes and tried not to think about the fact that she had, in fact, died.

  


  


***

  


  


“I can’t believe you really died,” said Ravandwyr, sitting cross legged at the foot of Lidya’s bed.

“Shhh!” she immediately replied, although Varian had left the bedroom at least five minutes before Ravandwyr had arrived. “It’s still a sensible subject.”

“I’d hope so, since it only happened two days ago.”

Lidya rolled her eyes but she couldn’t keep the smile that pulled at her lips.

“Did you only come to bitch or are you actually here for something?”

This time Ravandwyr laughed out loud and started combing his fingers through his hair, keeping his eyes on her.

“You know what? First of all, I just lost 10 golds to Vargoth, because he called King Wrynn and you a long time ago and I thought you would _at least_ let me know when something finally happened between the two of you, _especially_ since you guys got together thanks to me.”

Lidya opened her mouth to contest that, before thinking better of it.

“If it makes you feel better, I didn’t tell Ilana either and she helped too.”

“Whatever,” he replied, although he was smiling. “So, as I said you didn’t tell me, which forced me to give money to Vargoth, who’s always smug _for days_ when I lose a bet to him, and to make matters worse, it took you _dying_! Dying, as in, dead, Lidya! That’s unacceptable!”

“I really didn’t do it on purpose, you know...”

“Well, with you, we never know.”

Lidya rolled her eyes but huffed a laugh.

“Let’s not talk about if for now, okay?” she suggested as he started braiding his hair.

“Fine, what do you want to talk about?”

“We could talk about your love life.”

“You know I could talk about it all day long, but _your_ love life is more interesting than mine right now.”

For a moment they just looked at each other, Ravandwyr with a raised eyebrow and Lidya trying to suppress a smile – which didn’t work.

“Fine, it’s amazing, okay? Varian’s great and amazing and I still can’t believe I get to have him.”

“I know, right?” smiled Ravandwyr, “I feel exactly the same way about Vargoth.”

“Even after all this time?”

Ravandwyr nodded. “It probably won’t ever stop, or at least I hope it doesn’t, because that’s what makes it good and exciting. Now, you know that I’m too polite to ask about the sex even though I really want to know so...”

Lidya laughed out loud, wincing when it pulled at her still sensitive shoulder, and she sat up a little straighter against her pillows.

“It’s great to be honest… the best I’ve ever had, actually. Warriors have stamina, and that chest looks even better without the armor.”

“Mmmh,” he smiled, finishing his braid and flicking it over his shoulder, “I bet he’s big.”

“Fel yeah,” she laughed, cheeks burning a little, but Ravandwyr’s echoing laugh made her feel less silly. After all the _very_ personal stuff about Vargoth Ravandwyr had already told her, she sounded very tame but couldn’t forget that at the end of the day it was still her king she was talking about.

“I’m guessing the post-dying sex must be good.”

“We didn’t have any yet because I’m still too sore and need to see the healers again, but judging from experience it’s going to be better than great.”

“And you’ll be even more sore,” he added with a wink, making her smile again.

It felt good to be able to smile after literally dying.

“You’re even worse an influence than Ilana, which shouldn’t really surprise me, yet here I am.”

“It’s because she’s still too busy with her husband. Give her a few weeks and she’ll make me look like an angel again.”

“We’ll see,” she snorted, before Ravandwyr’s suddenly serious eyes made her lose all amusement. “Does everyone know about Varian and I now?”

“No, I just do because Vargoth was there when he arrived at the infirmary to see you. I’m pretty sure the healers are too scared to talk and Ilana won’t tell anyone.”

“Anyone who’ll talk,” she corrected, because she could already picture the smug look on Kayn’s face the next time they’d cross path. It was fine though, because she could make fun of him too now that Varedis was back, but still, Kayn was way too smug for anyone’s good.

“It’s just...” started Ravandwyr, looking down at his hands and biting at his lower lip, “you died, and no one was here to help except Ilana and the Battlelord, and they couldn’t even explain how you managed to walk all the way to Delivrance Point.”

“Ilana and the Battlelord were mostly holding me up and pulling me after them, I wasn’t walking at all.”

“Still,” he said, refusing to meet her eyes, which made the lump in her throat that much bigger, “I can’t stop thinking about what would have happened if the Eye of Aman’thul hadn’t worked when it did. The Tirisgarde needs you, _we_ need you, and I don’t know what would happen if we lost you.”

“Ravandwyr...”

“I owe you _so_ much and it feels like I’ll never repay you. You gave me my life back twice already, and I was never here when you needed it the most.”

Lidya leaned toward him, not caring about the jolt of pain in her shoulder, and grabbed his left hand in hers, squeezing his fingers until he looked up at her.

“You were here when I needed you. You were here when I was panicking about going to a stupid ball, and you’ve been with me ever since I lost my sister. You’re here with me right now, even though I know _for a fact_ you should be in Azsuna with Kalec. It doesn’t matter that you weren’t here when I got hurt, you’re here when I’m bed-ridden and bored out of my mind, thinking about my death over and over again, and _that’s_ what matters to me.” She blinked, not really surprise to find tears in Ravandwyr’s eyes to mirror those in hers, and intertwined their fingers. “I do what I do knowing full well that it could kill me at any second, but you have to understand that I do it for _this_ ,” she squeezed his fingers harder. “I do it so we can all live to see another day with our loved ones. And you wanna know what? When I died and went to the Light, all I could think about was that I wished I’d have more time to spend with you, and Ilana, and Varian, and Khadgar. Fel, even Kalec. There’s too much to fight for, too much to _live_ for, and I won’t let you think that you’re not here for me, because you are, more than you could imagine.”

“I just can’t lose anyone else,” he murmured, lips wobbling. “Especially you.”

Lidya sniffed, the first tear escaping her eye, and she let Ravandwyr move closer and take her in his arms, holding him as close and tight as she dared while her bedroom’s door was being pushed open and Ilana slipped her head in.

“I’ll come cuddle if you promise not to cry on me, it’s disgusting,” she said, although by the end of her sentence she had already kicked the door closed behind her and started to put her glaives away.

Ravandwyr didn’t move when Ilana sat on the bed to Lidya’s left and wrapped her arms around the two of them, and as one of Ilana’s horns softly brushed against her temple, Lidya couldn’t help but regret that it took her dying to finally be able to be honest with Ravandwyr like that.

 _I need to do better than that_ , she thought as the high elf sniffed against her shoulder, undoubtedly smearing snort on her pajamas. She hadn’t had time to talk to Varian – she had fallen asleep at the infirmary two days ago and had only woken up during a few minutes here and there to drink and eat, most of the time helped by the High King himself, who had kissed her forehead and promised to come back as soon as possible the last time she had woken up before Ravandwyr’s arrival.

He had freaked out – rightfully so – from what she remembered from the infirmary, enough not to care that people knew about the two of them, and she was scared to think about what it meant about them, about what they were doing and where they were going.

They hadn’t talked about it, but Varian had said enough about Tiffin for her to imagine how he must have felt, seeing her bloody and half dead on the infirmary bed.

“I don’t know what I’m gonna tell Varian,” she whispered.

“Not a damn thing, probably,” replied Ilana near her ear. “He’s a warrior, he understands war, no matter what. And if he doesn’t for some strange reason, you remind him by fucking him straight into this mattress.”

“And then you spoon him,” added Ravandwyr, making Lidya huff a laugh. “You spoon the shit out of him until he stops thinking about it for two minutes.”

“And then maybe _he’ll_ talk to you,” said Ilana. “He’s nothing like Loramus, but I feel like guys all have the same reaction to the person they love almost dying.”

“Meaning?”

“He’ll confess his undying love to you and promise you to end anything that ever threaten your security. And then he’ll ask you to spoon him some more.”

Ravandwyr nodded against Lidya’s shoulder, and she figured that she could probably trust them.

  


  


***

  


  


“It kills me that I can’t be there when things like that happen,” murmured Varian that night.

None of the fucking or spooning had happened yet, but Lidya was sitting on her small balcony with her back propped against a wall and Varian’s head on her thighs, his hair between her fingers, the pain in her shoulder finally gone, and that was enough for now.

“Maybe it’s better that you didn’t see all of it,” she replied in the same tone, eyes lost on the red clouds on the horizon.

She felt Varian look up at her face, but didn’t move.

It felt like there was so much hanging between them, so much pressing down on her shoulders, she didn’t think she could face all of it without imploding into a million snowflakes.

“You’ve been fighting for too long,” he said, pressing his face against her belly, still looking up at her, “when this is all over, I’m keeping you in my castle for two months straight. You’ll get some sleep and relax, it will be great.”

“No,” she replied, looking down at him and unable to keep her smile off her face, “when this is over I’m taking _you_ to my secret farm in Pandaria. We’ll grow vegetables for a while, I’m sure you’ve never done that as a King.”

“I’m sure it’s for a good reason,” he replied, trying for a smile of his own and falling just short of it.

He wouldn’t stop frowning no matter what Lidya tried and she was starting to run out of ideas to make him relax – although she hadn’t thought about the whole using her lap as a pillow thing, and she was glad he was doing it.

“I’m serious, though. I’ll take you to my farm and make you forget about your life for a while. I’m sure you’ll be great in a field. You have the muscles for that.”

“I’ll do it for you, but I doubt I’ll be capable of doing anything more than throw dirt around.”

“It’ll be enough to make me happy, to be honest,” she replied, smiling softly when he did.

She got lost in his eyes for a second. They were bluer than gray that evening, like a frozen lake, and with the sky turning purple over them and the sun shining red behind the city’s spires, it was enough to have her feel weak in the knees.

“Do you remember the first time you kissed me?” he asked, which was everything but what she had been expecting him to say.

“Of course,” she replied, feeling her cheeks redden despite all this time and the fact that he now knew how she truly felt.

“I’m glad you did it, even if it still took us years to get there. If it wasn’t for that kiss, I wouldn’t have let myself live again.”

“You know it’s the same for me, right?” she asked, and he smiled, nodding his head before pressing it back against her belly, closing his eyes for a second.

“I know,” he added, looking back up at her. “It just… it’s so strange, to think that...”

“That we made it,” she finished for him.

He nodded.

“That after all these years, all the things we saw and fought and lost, we’re here. Even though you died two days ago, even though I jumped off a ship, determined to sacrifice myself for the Alliance, even though we shouldn’t be here. We are. We’re here, and we made it.”

“What are you getting at?”

He sat up, cross legged in front of her, and gently grabbed her hands, his eyes looking _straight into her_.

“I loved once, a long time ago, when I was a completely different person, and then I lost her.” Lidya nodded, heart beating a little erratically, because she really hadn’t expected Varian to get like this, to speak with his heart like that. “I don’t think we would have liked each other much, back when I was this different person, but I changed, and I met you, and I kept changing. I saw my son grow up, and I saw you, a hero of the Alliance, constantly save the world and challenge my view of it. You lost Bolvar when I lost him too. You helped me in my quest for vengeance. You tried to reason with me when my prejudices got in the way. You helped me mend my relationship with my son. You even saved him, times and times again in Pandaria while he was being a stupid teenager.” They both chuckled at this but Lidya stayed quiet, knowing that this was important for Varian to get the words out. “You changed me in ways I can’t even express, without even realizing it, without even having to speak to me, and for that, Lidya, I’ll always owe you. You made me a better person than I could have ever hoped to be, without even trying. You played a role into making me who I am today, and for that I thank you.”

“I think I’ve been secretly in love with you since the day we first met,” she replied, voice shaky and tears in her eyes, and she chuckled when Varian laughed at that and kissed her forehead.

“You kissed me that night on the Skybreaker, and I feel like I should thank you for that too.”

“The pleasure was mine.”

He smiled, a crooked half thing that melted her heart, and slowly started rubbing the pad of his thumbs on her knuckles.

“I guess what I’m trying to get at is that I love you Lidya. I didn’t think it would happen, and I even less thought about it being reciprocated, but I do, and it is. And I love you more than anything, and I don’t care who knows and who doesn’t. You’ve proven, once again, that life is too short, and if the Legion marches on everything we care about tomorrow, I want to be able to say that I didn’t have to hide how I felt because of some stupid rules I imposed on myself. I’m the King and I’ll do whatever I want.”

“Not King anymore,” she replied, biting down on her lower lip to try and contain the beaming smile on her face but knowing from Varian’s reaction that it was useless. He laughed at the sentence she was throwing back at him and let her pull him against her chest, tucking his face against her throat and wrapping his arms around her waist like he hadn’t just poured his heart out to her – like he hadn’t just given her everything she hadn’t ever dared of dreaming to get.

“Please don’t die again,” he murmured against her skin, making her shiver.

“I love you way too much for that,” she replied against the crown of his head.

  


  


***

  


  


“You really are something,” said Draerin when Lidya sat down next to him on the sofa of his old office.

She hadn’t been in this room since being thrown out of the city when she was sixteen, but she was pretty sure no one had been able to enter – Draerin was a little crazy about his wards and no one could get past him if he didn’t want people to.

“I don’t know why you’re saying this,” replied Lidya, an amused smile pulling at her lips as her mentor delicately grabbed a lock of light chocolate hair that had fallen in front of his eyes and tucked it behind his ear.

She had always admired his effortless elegance and his “I don’t give a fuck about anything” attitude, and seeing him again on an almost daily basis was like a breath of fresh air. He was tall and slim, like all quel’dorei and sin’dorei were, but there was something else about him that drew people in, like they could feel the raw power and infinite caring hidden right underneath, and Lidya wasn’t immune to it.

He hadn’t changed since the last time she had seen him, except that his hair was slightly longer and he felt more powerful than before, and she wondered what he felt about her. She was nothing like the broken girl she had been the last time they had met, and she hoped he was proud of who she’d become.

“You’re not only an Archmage now, you also lead the Tirisgarde. You’re practically the Guardian at this point.”

“I wouldn’t go that far,” she replied, feeling herself growing hot around the collar.

She hated herself a little bit for needing his approval like this, but she had died three days ago and felt like she deserved a break.

“You should have told me that you weren’t ready yet.”

“I was. I _am_ ,” she immediately replied, hating to see his frown. “I made a mistake. A _stupid_ mistake, that cost me my life, but I am ready to fight. I have to be.”

“You have to be careful and stay alive, _that’s_ your priority. I don’t want to tell you that a lot of people count on you and need you, but that’s the reality of things. You have responsibilities that are bigger than you and the people you care about, and you have to honor it.”

Lidya looked down at her lap, feeling slightly ashamed of herself, because she knew he was right.

“I am so proud of you, everything that you’ve accomplished and who you’ve become, and I’d hate to see all that go to nothing with you dying on a dirty beach where the Sun doesn’t shine.”

Snorting, Lidya looked back up at him to find a gently smile on his handsome face, and not for the first time she felt immensely grateful to have met him.

“That, and your boyfriend is way too hot for you to die.”

She laughed out loud, Draerin’s raised eyebrow making the sentence even funnier.

“Come on, you knew I would say that.”

“Sure, but still. Everyone is obsessed with him, I’m going to take it the wrong way.”

“Pff,” he rolled his eyes. “You should have chosen someone who isn’t the hottest king alive then.”

“I’m going to pretend I didn’t hear you just say that.”

“As you wish.”

They exchanged a knowing smile.

“You know,” he said after a moment, “I almost didn’t read your letter when Aethas gave it to me.”

“Why not?”

“I thought it was going to be about some Horde and Alliance nonsense, or you going to another planet again.”

“You really should trust me more by now.”

“I trust you, which is why I want to tell me more about Khadgar.”

Lidya raised an eyebrow.

“Khadgar? _Really_?”

“He’s cute,” replied Draerin with a shrug, running a hand through his waist-length hair, “he seems smart, a little younger than he looks from what I heard, but a nice man. Doesn’t seem to care about the Horde and Alliance nonsense either.”

“That, he doesn’t. I just didn’t take him for your type.”

“You know my type tends to be problematic. I thought I’d try something new.”

Lidya smiled and nodded.

“Alright, if you want to try and win Khadgar over, why not. I’ll set you up.”

“Good. I’ll help you with your comet storm in exchange, you badly need help with that.”

“Don’t be insulting and don’t think I don’t know that you’re only doing that because Varian asked you to babysit me.”

Draerin just laughed and asked her what type of alcohol she wanted to get drunk on.

**Author's Note:**

> not to be that person who begs for comments, but i am that person so, pretty please?


End file.
